Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
By the side of the camels ride my three attendants, the pink of Somali fashion. Their frizzled wigs are radiant with grease; their Tobes are splendidly white, with borders dazzlingly red; their new shields are covered with canvass cloth; and their two spears, poised over the right shoulder, are freshly scraped, oiled, blackened, and polished. They have added my spare rifle, and guns to the camel-load; such weapons are well enough at Aden, in Somali-land men would deride the outlandish tool! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

First Footsteps In East Africa
excellent book for those who like to know more about Somalia

first footsteps in east africa
it's the most valueble book i ever rea ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Amazing book, amazing life
This is a book that may look intimidating with its 600+ pages, but unlike some other reviewers, I did not find a single dull moment. Edward Rice has done a truly masterful job in carrying us through the whole life of this extraordinary man.

Burton had energy and talent enough for any six normal people - perhaps more.Even in his declining years, weak and wracked by sickness, he still traveled, traveled compulsively, though in these latter days the travels did not, as always previously, produce books full of information on the places and people and societies he visited. He was now focused on the translations for which he is (among other things) famous. Yet still, when the old lion was required to return from England to his "official" consular job in Trieste, Rice notes that "Noise, fatigue, hours spent in changing trains or boarding or disembarking from steamboats did not deter Burton. Geneva, Venice, Naples, Brindisi, Malta, Tunis, Algiers, the Riviera, the Alps, with a dozen stops in between, were visited and complained about."

It's hard to give the flavor of this amazing biography- amazing life! Soaking up languages as if by osmosis, dressing and passing for any of a dozen Eastern races and sharing their ways, visiting their secret holy places -hey, what a movie or TV series, would knock spots off Tomb Raiders etc...

The pleasure is increased by Rice's occasional laconic throwaway lines: "The Maratha princes...were patrons of the great god Siva and practiced forms of phallic worship, engaged in by male and female devotees alike in very wild and primitive rites." That's all we get on that. (But then, perhaps it's all we need.)

Rice describes Doughty, another famous writer on the Middle East, as writing "a rich and tortured prose that still wins him admiration but few readers."

Many mind-jolting incidents: on Burton's wife Isabel's difficulties in South America, preaching to the black slaves: "Her only convert was a black dwarf named Chico, who betrayed her faith in him by roasting her favorite cat alive over the kitchen fire." But Chico continued in her service - no others available!

He has an eye for other people's good quotes: Burton's predecessor at Trieste had been handed the post of consul with Lord Derby's comment, "Here is six hundred a year for doing nothing, and you are just the man to do it."

I believe it would help us all to better understand the current Middle East to read this account of the sources it sprang from, 150 years ago. No, they are not like us (Westerners) and never have been. We even see the first mention of the Wahhabis, "a much-feared set of fundamentalists who were noted for their violence and puritanical beliefs..."

The writing is so accomplished that I regret having to raise one correction: in the Royal Navy you don't travel "in the H.M.S Antelope" for instance. You travel "in HMS Antelope- no "the" (and usually no periods in HMS). Doesn't make sense, anyway, when you recall that HMS stands for His (or Her) Majesty's Ship.Contrariwise, "the" is OK with "SS Oldiron" - "the steam ship Oldiron."

But that doesn't reduce the five stars!

EXCELLENT!
THIS IS a well researched.well written biography of a life that is truly inspiring.

THE definitive biography of this great man.
This was by far the best biography of the illustrious Richard Burton I have read.The level of scholarship displayed by the author is impressive and does justice to a man whose gifts made him one of the most impressive characters from history.I highly recommend this book as well as those written by Burton himself.

fascinating

A mostly gripping account of an absolutely fascinating life. Rice tells in great detail the travels and troubles of Burton as he searches for the source of the Nile, penetrates the forbidden cities of Mecca and Medina, brings the Kama Sutra to the west, translates the Arabian Nights, and joins a snake cult in India, and that is just a small sampling of the accomplishments and endeavors of Burton, a man who was constantly exploring himself and his world and transforming both in the process.

Rice tells the story with such attention to detail you feel like you are traveling right beside Burton, and when he doesn't know certain facts about a specific incident, he will tell you that he is conjecturing, and how he came to the conclusions he did. The net effect is that you feel like you can trust what Rice has written as being authentic and accurate.

The book is kind of slow during the earlier chapters, but stay with it and you will be rewarded with one of the most fascinating accounts you have ever read. I read it more than 5 years ago and still recommend the book and find and give away stray copies to friends. GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO GET THIS BOOK ! !

Wow.
The most incredible thing about this book is the fact that it's true! Burton led such an extraordinary life! I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious, but reluctant to travel, experience, and live. Thisbook is also excellent for anyone who is interested in language, religion,or travel. Burton spoke 26 languages, experienced firsthand an assortmentof different religions including Hinduism and Islam, and shows just howmuch one person can accomplish in a lifetime. Only 4 stars due to some drybits in the book, but never a dull moment in Burton's life... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good on Biography; Poor on Geography
A splendid biography, providing additional details from previous books on the subject; a fascinating life. It must be confusing for the non-British reader to be confronted with references to 'England' and 'English'
when the correct nomenclature should be 'Britain' and 'British'.For instance, the author refers to the 'English Government', an entity which ceased to exist with the Treaty of Union in 1707. These lapses are not acceptable from an academic author

An Incredible Account of the Life of an Extraordinary Man!
This review applies to the A.D. 1990 Volume: "Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Secret Agent Who Made The Pilgrimage To Mecca, Discovered The Kama Sutra, and Brought The Arabian Nights To The West," written by Edward Rice and published by Charles Scribner's Sons, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York City, NY. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-10898.

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) is without question one of the most remarkable men of the Nineteenth Century. This text covers the exploits of the man who was the towering intellectual and physical specimen, face scarred by a Somali warrior's spear; Burton the scholar and author; Burton the scientist, soldier, explorer, and British undercover agent to boot.

Burton was one of the very first Europeans to seek the source of the Nile River in Central Africa, as daring then as a trip to the moon now. He was the first European to reach Lake Tanganyika. In disguise he went to the forbidden cities of Mecca and Medina. He was the first European to penetrate the sacred city of Harar in the unexplored East Africa. It was Burton who brought out to the Western World the classic Indian book on sex, the "Kama Sutra." And--perhaps his most celebrated achievement--Burton did the seventeen volume translation of the classic "Arabian Nights."

Burton had mastered some twenty-nine languages and dialects and operated as an undercover agent while employed as an officer for the East India Company in India. On one secret mission, Burton investigated the Mormons of Utah, the subject of his book "The City of the Saints." On another trip to the Western Hemisphere Burton explored the battlefields of Paraguay out of which came a book about the war between Paraguay and Brazil. Fascinated by swords Burton wrote a comprehensive treatise on the subject which is still in print today; "The Book of The Sword."

Burton also served as a diplomat in Trieste, Damascus, and as envoy to Dahome so as to convince the West African King to stop the celebration of the Dahoman custom of human sacrifice and cannibalism and to desist in the slave trade: "It was barbaric and of an unlimited cruelty (the celebration of custom in Dahomey).Burton did not see any executions, but in deference to him--or to his Queen--the victims were slaughtered at night--"the evil nights," said Burton--the King cutting off the first head himself.Nine men perished in the first slaughter, the victims being decapitated and castrated after death, "in respect," wrote Burton, "to the royal wives."In all, Burton counted twenty-three male victims.He was told that eighty perished during the five days of the custom, and some five-hundred during the year.Women criminals were executed by "officers of their own sex, within the palace walls, not in the presence of men," a fact that he could not resist emphasizing later: 'Dahome is there one point more civilized than Great Britain, where they still, wonderous to relate, 'hang away' even women, in public.'" (Chapter 25, p.379).

Burton's translations of "The Perfumed Garden," and of the "Ananga Ranga" were the first in English of these erotic Indian classics.Burton also had the satisfaction of seeing published his own works of "Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah," and "First Footsteps in East Africa; or, and Exploration of Harar."

Although, unfortunately, many of his works and narratives were destroyed posthumously by his wife, no modern day explorer can even hope to achieve or surmount the exploits and travels of Sir Richard Burton who was knighted during the last ten years of his life. Although the 1989 Bob Rafelson movie "Mountains of the Moon" recounts just one chapter in Burton's life (the discovery of Lake Tanganyika and relationship with Speake), it may be a good starting point for the reader.

Simply beyond belief. A remarkable saga!Five stars.

A special book worth seeking out
Sir Richard Burton was a true legend -- he spoke more than 25 languages, travelled to all sorts of remote places, and had a fascinating life. If you enjoy armchair travel books, this one if for you. Rice travelledextensively in the 10 years it took him to research Burton's life. Burtonhas many "firsts" to his name:the first European to look forthe source of the Nile, the first to discover Lake Tanganyika, the first todisguise himself and visit Medina and Mecca, and the list goes on. If notfor Burton, we would not have the Kama Sutra nor the tales from ArabianNights.You can just see Burton in his tent in Africa translating andkeeping diary notes.This is one of the most interesting biographies Ihave ever read. A true adventurer. ... Read more

Book Description
Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890)--explorer, linguist, anthropologist--was one of the most fascinating figures of the Victorian era. In 1866, while serving as British consul in Brazil, he presented four lectures on the highlights of his travels in Arabia and Africa. The first two lectures describe the visits Burton made to Medina and Mecca disguised as an Islamic pilgrim. The rites of pilgrimage, framed by the drama of Burton's disguise and its attendant dangers, are described in extensive and sympathetic detail. The next two lectures are dramatic accounts of Burton's journeys to Harar and Dahomey, and of his mission to persuade King Gelele to give up the practice of human sacrifice. The vivid details he presents reveal not only the characteristics of the cultures he encountered but also the prejudices of the culture he represented. Well received by critics when first published in 1990, this volume of lectures is now available in paperback. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Don't want to review. Looking for videotape of PBS program.
Can you help? PBS ran a series on this subject some years ago. I'd like to find a copy. ... Read more

Book Description
Sindh Revisited is a remarkable story of the author's fascination with the early life of Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890). It is the story of an incredible journey, too - deep into the heart of British India, and the India and Sindh of today.

Christopher Ondaatje's Sindh Revisited is the extraordinarily sensitive account of the author's quest to uncover the secrets of the seven years Richard Burton spent in India in the army of the East India Company from 1842 to 1849.

Here is drama and insight, danger and revelation - a rare first-hand glimpse into a world few of us know. Startling photographs complement this narrative that puts the reader on the scene in modern Sindh while never losing sight of the Victorian India of Burton. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The least informative book about Sindh
I disliked this book.The author travels to Sindh and revists the places visited by Sir Richard F. Burton, and then writes about his observations.I have 2 problems with this book..

One is that the authors obsession with prostitution and homosexuality distorts his views of this great land.Secondly, his views are clouded by his sources which are all feudal in nature.One cannot experience Sindh without looking at the lives of the everyday people.I for one wasn't impressed by the fact that the authors hosts in Sindh were the biggest criminals and landlords of the province.

Finally, it is silly for the author to keep pointing out that Burton was well known for his controversial report about homosexuality in Karachii.We got that the first time he mentions it.

A rare, wonderful glimpse of Victorian India
While rifling through her stack of borrowed library books, during my brief visit to Sarnia earlier this month, one book stood out and beckoned me to read it. Written by one of our very own (i.e Canadian), ChristopherOndaatje, not to be confused with his brother of "The EnglishPatient" fame, "Sindh Revisited" is what its subtitle speaksof: "A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard FrancisBurton."

Though Burton, the 19th century adventurer, too, wentlooking for the source of the Nile, it was Burton's own account of hisexperiences covering the western seaboard of India, between 1842 - 1849,which became the basis of Ondaatje's quest to mirror a similar trek.Ondaatje is a devout admirer of Burton having read all that has beenwritten about him as well as Burton's own accounts. To capture the trueessence of his journey, and grasp the geo-social nuances of India'sdiversity, Ondaatje persuaded Haroon Siddiqi, editor emeritus of "TheToronto Star", to accompany him on his travels. Siddiqi turns out tobe an able guide, interpreter and sometimes an effectiveinterlocutor.

Burton served as a military officer, sometimes surveyor,with the British East India Company (BEIC). He was an accomplished linguistwho spoke a number of Indian languages and dialects. rumor had it that hewas in reality a spy dispatched to areas still under native control butwhich were coveted by the BEIC. He openly cohabited with local gals to thegreat consternation of fellow officers. On many of his trips he easilymerged into the local scene, in dress, food, habits, gestures and of coursethe lingo.

Though the book is titled "Sindh Revisited", a titlesimilar to that of Burton's book, it is in reality a much more extensive ajourney which encompasses Mysore, Goa, Bombay, Baroda, Karachi and someother places of great fascination. Ondaatje gives us descriptive glimpsesof what life may have been like during Burton's time and as he would haveseen and experienced it, comparing it to present day life in each of theseplaces. He captures the life of some of today's Maharajas (e.g Gaekwar ofBaroda) and their painful readjustment into civilian life, a far cry fromabsolute rulership enjoyed by their fathers or grandfathers. There is ariveting account of a 'mujra' evening in a well-known district of Karachi.Burton fell from General Napier's gracewith his reports giving luridwritten accounts of boy brothels in Karachi.

Christopher Ondaatje wasborn in Ceylon, recieving his schooling and began his career in England,and emigrated to Canada in 1956. In 1967 he founded Pagurian Press. He wasa member of Canada's Olympic bobsled team that brought back Camada's onlygold medal from the 1964 Olympics. He is the author of The Prime Ministersof Canada, Olympic Victory, Leopard in the Afternoon and The Man Eater ofPunanai.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to one and all.

Bhupinder ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Salt Lake City--Burton style.
Sir Richard Burton--master explorer, linguist, and scholar.He is known as the man who brought the Arabian Nights to the English speaking world, and is credited with being partially responsible for the discovery of the source of the Nile.He infiltrated the sacred cities of Medina and Mecca, disguised as an Arab.
So what prompted him to go to Salt Lake City?Burton was at a very difficult stage of his life, and needed a sort of vacation.Plus, according to him, he wanted to "see the Mormons."Some say he was interested in seeing their system of polygamy firsthand, some that he loved to visit sacred cities (having been to Mecca, Medina, Harar, and Damascus).Whatever the reason, he fortunately documented his trip, and we are left with this wonderful look, from an outsider, at "The City of the Saints."
One of the things that makes Burton so great is his absolute objectivity.His account of his visit among the Mormons is no exception.He went, he saw the facts, and he formed his opinions, just as everyone else.What set him apart, though, was that he managed to recount his adventure without the taint of his own bias.
Another great quality of Burton's was his incomparable eye for detail.He noticed everything, and took great pains to discover the history of everything he encountered.The result is a wonderfully rich account full of history and culture that Burton gives us as no other man could.
This is considered to be one of Burton's best books, though it is little known.It is by far the best non-Mormon account of early Salt Lake City that I've ever encountered.Its only flaw is that it is a little drawn out in places, but for the most part, this is a wonderfully detailed account and well worth the read. ... Read more

Book Description
"Starting in a hollowed log of wood--some thousand miles up a river with infinitesimal prospect of returning, I ask myself `Why?' and the only echo is `damned fool!...the Devil drives.'"

So wrote Richard Francis Burton, while preparing for an exploration of the lower Congo in 1863. Tormented by the question of "why?", his answer "the devil drives" applies not only to his explorations, but to the whole of his turbulent life. The nature of his demon, the source of his restlessness, has baffled many biographers.

Drawing from Burton's own published works and from the few manuscripts that managed to escape destruction by Lady Burton, Fawn Brodie explains the "why?" and in doing so creates a fascinating portrait. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

A Fascinating Life Well Presented in this Biography
The author presents a very thoroughly researched and well written biographical book on a fascinating life of an early British explorer of East Africa (Burton was the first European explorer to report his "findings" of what is today called Lake Tangenyika). At times the presentation can become tedious but on the whole this is a book well worth reading and a life well worth knowing more about. Beyond his explorations Burton lived, wrote, fought, loved and experienced life to the fullest extent. As many of the other comments from other readers have suggested, his life and how he lived it can be a positive inspiration.

Indiana Jones in the flesh...
Richard Burton was an enigmatic, sour, oftentimes neurotic voyeur with the intention of beating his contemporaries and traveling the globe learning and exposing the cultures he came across.Ms. Brodie also has a tie with writing other biographies of sensational men (Joseph Smith, Jr of Mormon fame) and this book is an educated insight into Richard Burton's travels, motives, and surroundings.The maps included along with photographs, illustrations, and excerpts of Burton's own words help move the narrative along.It can be 'old English' tedious, but is well worth the delve into a man that went against the grain in every way.

Intriquing and Sometimes Painful
This is a captivating account of a unique and restless individual driven to observe and graphically document the often very cruel life of the Middle East and Africa in the nineteenth-century. This will not bore.

WONDERFUL BIOGRAPHY - I AM GRATEFUL FOR THIS ONE
I read this one years ago, when it was first published.This was my first expierence and admittedly my first encounter with this remarkable man.This has lead me, over the years, to read much more of Sir Richard Burton.Each work I read, each bit of information I gather, I am even for fascinated with this individual, his accomplishments and his writings.This has been a nice reading hobby for me over the past number of year and it all started with Ms. Brodie's work.I am grateful.The book is well written, well researched and is very, very readable.Highly recommend this one.

Towering Individual of the 19th Century
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton would be a worthy study for anyone interested in the potentials of the human being. A man of multiple talents and achievements, to count and adequately summarize them all would be an improbable task. This man accomplished more in a lifetime than most of us mere mortals could in several. As a 19th century British explorer, he stands with the legendary - Livingston, Stanley, Baker and Speke. What set him apart from these luminaries, towers above in fact, was is scholarship. His writing talents, publishing countless volumes, his uncanny lingual gift, (twenty-five languages, including several dialects that amount to over forty) and his inroads into anthropology, ethnology, religion and archaeology, make him one of the truly great individuals of the Victorian age. Brodie's treatment of Burton is a worthy tribute to the man, and after reading over four other life histories of Sir Richard; I can say with all honesty, that it is one of the best.

I have to admit that I have a severe aversion to that sixties literary trend of applying Freudian psychoanalysis in a biographical study. It is difficult enough analysing the living, let alone the dead and gone. Brodie is guilty of this method in this biography; however, she does it without taking anything away from the subject. Most all the typical psychoanalytical symptoms are present: the Oedipus complex, latent homosexuality, and preoccupations with sex in general. Brodie's analyses, though, is not a closed shop - she remains open to her subject. In other words, her psychoanalytic musings do not cloud the uniqueness and larger than life qualities of this man. It's a side issue, and therefore can be ignored.

What is so startling about Burton was his enormous passion to know, his tireless travels and recordings of the unknown and exotic. He not only was everything mentioned above, but a poet of talent, geologist, amateur physician, expert swordsman and skilful spy. A precursor to Freud, he studied the sexual customs of many cultures and was a fierce critic of Victorian values on the subject. This man's curiosity knew no bounds and he ensured he did not waste a minute of his sixty-nine years - a relatively short life considering what the man accomplished.

There are many biographies about Burton, but this one seems to encapsulate the man's spirit and zest for life. Brodie writes an enthralling biography and anyone interested in this towering figure of the 19th century, this text is highly recommended.


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